The People's Republic of Fub

This morning, I left early (06:30) to go to Rotterdam, to visit one of 'my' clients there. The A15 highway basically runs from Nijmegen to Rotterdam, so that's the one I take.Along the way, I got overtaken by an ambulance. (Which was kinda cool: everyone swerved to the side of the road, and the ambulance could ride down the middle -- it really worked out nicely.) I also saw two firetrucks with sirens go on the highway. I had assumed there was a fire somewhere, and the highway was the easiest way to get there quick.

Just as I had passed the connection to the A2, I encountered a traffic jam. No problem, probably because of the people coming onto the A15 from the A2 -- when two streams of traffic have to mingle, there's always some slowdown. But then the traffic information came up on the radio, and I heard that the A15 had been closed off beyond the intersection I had just passed. A heavy lorry had crashed through the mid-section, taking a smaller lorry with it, and they had both ended up in the ditch on our side of the road. The two drivers had been wounded.

I was stuck, along with lots of other drivers.

We couldn't go forward: there was no exit between us and the accident. And we couldn't go back either: traffic had backed up... When the traffic information came on at 09:00 and they estimated the road would be opened again at 15:00, I was less than enthousiastic about that prospect. At least I had called my client and the office so they knew what was up.You can get annoyed about it, but since there is nothing you can do, it doesn't make sense to get overly excited. I stayed calm and hydrated, and spent some time playing around on my phone.

All in all, I spent just under three hours waiting there.

I was just talking with the German guy from the car in front of me. He hadn't heard the traffic information, so I brought him up to speed. Just as we were peering into the distance behind us, where people were backing up onto the access way and cutting through a stretch of grass to leave the highway, the cars in the distances started moving again.We went past the accident single-file. Highway workers were waving us on to speed up and clear the road again, but seeing a lorry on it's side in the ditch did not predispose me to go past that at high speeds...